Threat To Papuan Rubber Growers

Case Against Interference by International Committee

From Our Own Correspondent

PT. MORESBY, October 14.

TT ARLY in August, a memorandum was presented to Australia House in London, by the International Rubber Regulation Committee, and was for warded to Canberra and thence to Papua, The memorandum points out the great advantages that rubber growers in Papua enjoy under the restriction scheme; and, after stating- that these advantages are due to the self-imposed sacrifices of rubber producers in other countries, goes on to suggest that no encouragement be given to the extension of existing rubber plantations in Papua.

The advantages referred to are: (a) A stabilised market price at an economic figure. (b) Favourable exchange of sterling against Australian currency. (c) Remission of primage tax on Papuan rubber imported into Australia. (d) A bounty (temporary only) of 2d per lb on all rubber produced in Papua and sold in Australia. (Paid by the Commonwealth.) The fear of the Committee appears to be that, with conditions so favourable, there is danger of the extension of rubber areas in Papua to a point at which Papuan exports may exercisd an adverse influence upon world-supply.

Admittedly, the conditions are favour

able to the rubber grower in Papua; but it appears that considerable encourage ment will be needed if further capital is to be risked in further development.

In 1926, Holland refused to join the Stevenson scheme for restriction of rubber output for the very good reason that she could see no advantage to her self in doing so. And it does not seem unreasonable that Australia also should consult her own convenience in the matter of rubber supplies.

Papua is Australia’s only non-foreign source of supply in the matter of rubber.

And Papua at present produces only about one-sixteenth of the Australian annual consumption, from a total planted area of just under 9000 acres. The case of other rubber producing countries is different. They have the world for their market; and they can glut that market with surplus rubber without approaching their maximum production.

Peculiar Disabilities

HPHE question has another aspect. Papua was made a British Protectorate in 1884, and was annexed in 1888; and it became a Territory of the Commonwealth in 1906. And in fifty-two years of Euro pean occupation, which period includes thirty years of Australian rule, it has not attracted a sufficient volume of settle ment or investment to provide its modest revenue without substantial help from Australia.

Out of a total area of fifty-nine million

acres in Papua, only fifty-eight thousand are under cultivation, representing a little less than one acre in each thousand of Papua’s extent. This meagre result is due, not to the poverty of the country, but to the peculiar disabilities imposed upon it by Australia’s political necessi ties.

Australia, being Papua’s natural mar ket, and the only possible one for the majority of her products, it is upon Aus tralian marketing conditions that Papua’s prosperity must depend. Yet it is due solely to the severity of these conditions that Papua has struggled vainly for so many years to build up economic inde pendence.

Papua’S Dismal Industrial

History

THE two great evils against which A Papua has to contend apart from her bounties, w r hich are negligible in their effects, are: (a) an adverse tariff de signed to protect Australian producers, and (b) the restriction of shipping ser vices to Australian vessels, which has resulted in a virtual monopoly to one shipping firm, and in the high rates and costly inconvenience that usually spring from monopoly.

Of the many industries that have been started in Papua very nearly all have failed.

Copra is barely paying its way in an uncertain market and against heavy transport costs. Coir fibre, which, as a by-product of copra, might help plantation finances, costs more than the market price in freight alone. Coffee is not paying.

Hemp, though of first-class quality, could not cope with the cost of transport.

Tobacco, maize, and fruits, for which the Papuan soil and climate are particularly suitable, cannot face Australia’s adverse tariff.

Timber is excluded by a prohibitive duty and also by excessive freights.

There is a vast amount of copper in Papua, but it cannot be produced profit ably. Sixty years of continuous pros pecting has failed to discover payable quantities of gold, except on the little island of Misima.

Oil, which is believed to exist in large quantities, was taken out of Papua’s hands by the Commonwealth in 1912, and serious search for it is only now begin ning. And the economic cultivation of sugar, for which Papua is particularly well equipped, is rendered impossible by the exclusion of Papuan sugar from the British Preference quota.

Papua’S Main Hope

J>UBBER remains, the only product to which Papua can look for economic independence. There is a great extent of suitable land for its culture. The climate is favourable, and costly shipping does not affect it seriously.

And there are encouraging signs that, given the assurance of a stable price and reasonable profit on invested capital, the area of rubber may be greatly increased, possibly even to the point at which Aus tralia may draw the whole of her supplies from Papua.

If, on the other hand, undue weight is given to the suggestions of the Rubber Regulation Committee, Papua’s plight will become desperate.

The colony’s small revenue is, and has been for years, inadequate to cope with the necessary demands of administration.

Government influence is still spreading among the primitive inhabitants, and increasing control cannot be divorced from growing expenditure.

Australia has been restive under the

need for payment of an annual subsidy; but unless something is done, and done soon, to encourage industry,in Papua, it will become necessary not only to con tinue the subsidy and to continue it indefinitely, but to increase it very con siderably.

Rev. Father J. Deihl, of the Roman Catholic Mission at Apia, Western Samoa, returned early in October from a visit to the Tokelau Group on. board the B.P. schooner Makoa,

Mr. E. G. Theodore, who has a controll ing interest in Emperor Mines Ltd., and other companies on the Tavua goldfield, Fiji, arrived in Australia by the Mariposa early in October.

Mr. Michael Leahy has been awarded the Murchison Grant by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, “for his explorations of Central New Guinea.” The Cuthbert Peek Grant has been awarded to Mr. T. H. Harrison, “to assist him in his proposed expedition to New Guinea.”